Sincerely
by Kade Riggs
Summary: Four years after Gambit's death, his nonmutant daughter begins to catch glipses of him in her dreams, and even while awake. Soon it becomes painfully apparent that no one knew all of Remy's secrets. Not even those who loved him most. 'Chapters now fixed.'
1. Getting a Little Air

AN: There is a prequel to this story called _Xs and Os._ It's not finished--yet--but it does contain good backstory for the sequel, and nothing too major is given away in this story that pertains to the outcome of _Xs and Os_. I don't intend to use much, if any back story from the prequel because I want this piece to be a standalone. If it gets confusing, please let me know.

* * *

"Under no circumstances should you _ever _quit your day job, Sadi," the young woman growled to herself, slumping down with her back against a brick wall in a dark alleyway behind a dumpster.

It stank back there, bad. She was covered in trash from head to toe, and worst of all she bled heavily from a deep gash on the back of her left leg, just above her knee. And finally, to top off an already wonderful evening, there were cops both in cars and on foot searching every corner of New Orleans for her.

Why?

Cause she was just trying to freakin' help them out!

A bright light suddenly illuminated everything around her, and she flattened herself further against the wall, trying to make herself as small as possible in the shadows behind the dumpster. Her heart pounded frantically in her chest. She held her breath, listening to the distinctive sound of tires rolling by so slowly the sound basely resembled two pieces of Velcro getting pulled apart as the rubber stuck to the hot pavement.

After a moment or two of sitting stock-still, the bright beam of light began to fade away little-by-little, leaving her once again in the comforting cloak of darkness. Sadi sighed, letting her entire body sag. She felt exhausted. Her muscles were dead, and only the dull, aching throb in her leg was kept her from falling asleep where she sat, her head lolling back against the cool brick.

At last she forced herself to get up and hobble toward the street. In spite of the handkerchief she'd wrapped around her wound, it continued to drip freely. Blood trickled down her skin on the inside of her pant leg, tickling almost unbearably as it traveled down her knee and calf before soaking into her low-cut sock. Her shoe felt squishy by the time she managed to drag herself some fifteen blocks back to her apartment complex--as if she'd stepped in a pothole full of water. Until she actually reached her destination, however, she hardly noticed. She'd been too busy watching out for anything wearing a badge, her attention focused on looking ahead, spotting shops and alleyways she could duck into at the first sign of trouble.

Her hands shook as she took out her keys, trying to find the one that would let her into her apartment, while trying to calm her tight breathing. She blinked once, then again, forcing her blurring vision and sluggish brain to function and find the correct key.

The initial wave of cool air that hit her sweat-soaked body when she finally managed to unlock her apartment door felt heavenly. The very first thing she did after shutting the door behind her was walk over to the air conditioner in the living room window, and drop to her knees before it. Sadi braced her small hands against the AC's cool steel frame, letting the steady breeze caress the overheated skin of her face and upper torso, calming her, allowing her to finally unwind.

For several minutes, all she worried about was breathing. Alone and bleeding heavily was no time for a panic attack. Or worse, a panic attack that triggered her asthma. It'd been a long time since anything had gotten to her like that, but the entire night had been too much.

The droplets of sweat soon began to evaporate from her body without being replaced, leaving her feeling dryer and lowering her temperature. She reeked, and her hair stuck unpleasantly to the back of her neck. The first thing she wanted to do was take a shower. Just as soon as she spent one or two more minutes in front of the AC...

She wasn't sure how long she knelt there, but eventually she had to force her eyes open and heave herself to her feet, taking most of her weight on her good leg. Sadi stripped off her clothes as soon as she reached the bathroom, turning on the water and getting in with the blood soaked handkerchief still tied around her leg. She turned temperature of the water up higher and higher as a chill began to slowly set into her bones.

Sadi stood with both forearms braced against the white tile, and her hands folded together. Her left knee bent slightly, as she continued to keep her weight off it. She let her head rest against her wrists as she looked down at the metal handle on the faucet, and then lower, at the river of blood swirling down the drain.

She attempted to smirk wryly, but failed. "I guess this is the part when Norman Bates sneaks in my room and stabs me to death," she whispered tiredly.

She'd almost dozed off on her feet when her arms slipped against the slick surface they rested against, and she nearly fell, only just catching herself by throwing one hand against the adjacent wall to steady herself. In a daze, she stilled, staying in that awkward position for a long moment, feeling disoriented and more than a little nauseous.

It was then that she heard the strange footsteps moving through her apartment, and Sadi's eyes slowly widened with fear.


	2. High on a Rooftop

* * *

He'd followed her...stalked her since the moment she left her apartment that morning. It hadn't been hard to find where she lived. All he had to do was follow his nose...and Jean-Luc's money. 

She was older, thinner, stronger--but she was still a child. She'd just learned a few new tricks from her grand-pop, and from her own bad experiences.

She wasn't half bad at what she did. No matter how much he disapproved of it, he couldn't take that from her. He'd followed her when she slipped completely unnoticed into a museum that morning, like a wolf among sheep. He'd watched while she slipped a small artifact into her pocket when no one else was looking. It had been smooth, real smooth. She made it look so easy, and then she'd gone on to almost lose him in the crowd on her way to the exit.

There was the typical drop-delivery mechanism executed in a small coffee shop shortly afterward, followed by a long walk around the French quarter. For a kid, she certainly kept herself moving right along, hardly ever pausing to catch her breath. Not that it surprised him. He'd been there, walked the walk; he knew sometimes it was easier to stay a step ahead of your conscience if you never paused long enough for it to catch up with you. He just wondered if Sadi knew she was fighting a losing battle.

After all, no one could run forever.

She was everything that all the speculators, and gossipers at the mansion had predicted she'd grow up to be without 'proper guidance.' She'd suddenly up and left without a word to anyone but the Professor something like four years ago. Egos had been bruised, feelings hurt. Seemed quite a few people in the X-Men community had thought of themselves as the girl's family. He'd known better. He'd always known the mansion was Gambit's home, and without him, Sadi would run. At the time, he'd hoped she'd be strong enough to never look back.

So far, she hadn't let him down. She'd made him proud, even if she had turned out to be exactly the sort of person that would make her old family members shake their heads in shame, wondering where they'd failed in raising her.

Funny how short some of their memories were when examining their own faults.

But, there was a hitch. Perhaps only a slight one, but still, there it was... For whatever reason, because of the guilt that plagued her, or otherwise, Sadi had gone vigilante. Stealing by day, trying to keep the streets crime-free at night. What the fuck was going on in that girl's head? How had she gotten so mixed up?

Logan didn't know, but he figured while he was there, he might as well find out.

Putting out his cigar, he turned to leave the rooftop he was standing on, heading down to visit Gambit's daughter.


	3. Short Reunion

AN: I think I might actually post a chapter to this story's prequel, Xs and Os rather soonish. I had discontinued it, but writing this story has somewhat gotten the creative juices flowing again and given a little spare time (and if I actually find my flash drive) I hope to continue that story and (crossing fingers) perhaps even finish it eventually.

* * *

She'd left the door unlocked. An amateur's mistake, and a sometimes fatal one for young women and young criminals alike. In Sadi's current business, you simply didn't live to be old if you fucked up like that _too_ many times. 

He could see she'd stopped by the air conditioner, bleeding all the while. There were shoe-shaped prints for every other step she'd taken, and they led toward the bathroom. The shower was running, and he briefly wondered if he should merely wait for her in the shadows of her unlit apartment--see if he could make her jump when she came out. The only thing that motivated him to continue was the fact that he knew she'd already lost a significant amount of blood.

If it was enough to kill her, Logan didn't know. He didn't think so, but she was, after all, only human.

As soon as he began to ease the door open, he heard the distinctive sound of someone drawing back the slide of a Colt 45, putting a round in the chamber of the powerful semi-automatic handgun. Even if it wouldn't kill him, one of those things could knock him off his feet, and leave him with a nasty migrane.

"Don't fucking move," she growled lightly, her view of him still obstructed by the door.

Slowly, very slowly, he pushed the door the rest of the way open, keeping his hands up in a non-threatening stance. When she saw it was him, she continued to hold firm, not making any move to lower her weapon.

For her benefit, he kept his hands in the air, knowing that he should've knocked first, given some indication he was coming in peace. For once his tendency toward stealth had come back to bite him in the ass. It figured she'd heard him coming. For the majority of her childhood she'd tagged along behind him almost everywhere he went. He used to think her attempts to be sneaky _just like him_ were funny, especially coming from a four-year-old human girl.

At the time, he'd mostly liked that her pop hadn't approved of her spending so much time with him.

"You gonna shoot me, kid, or are we gonna stand here like this all night?" he finally asked, eying her clenched jaw, angry stare, and trembling hands. Her nostrils were flaring with each rapid breath, a sure sign that she was fighting hard to keep her breathing under control, and to stop her panic from overwhelming her.

She was only wearing a towel, her feet were braced shoulder-length apart, like he'd taught her, and he didn't even have to look to know blood flowed down her leg in a steady stream. It was diluted with water from the shower she'd been taking, but he could still smell the familiar metallic tang hanging heavy in the humid air.

It happened so suddenly, he almost didn't have time to react; but he did catch her before her body hit the hard tile floor. It wasn't hard, considering she pitched toward him, trying to grab him as she collapsed. The gun was lost in his short struggle to support her weight, falling from the girl's suddenly slackened grasp as she lost consciousness.

He held her close with one arm, practically crushing her against his chest as he reached into the open shower stall to feel the temperature of the water. As he suspected, it was hot. There were red splatter marks all over the inside of the stall, still dripping down the walls because of the moisture.

Yet another amateur mistake that could've cost Sadi her life that evening. Stupid girl should've known hot water would increase blood flow from a wound. He just hoped she'd fainted from shock and not blood loss.

He shifted her weight as he turned off the water, then wrapped his other arm around her, guiding her form out of the bathroom. He laid her down on the futon in the living room. It was the only piece of furniture she had that he could see; besides an old arm chair sitting in the opposite corner. He hadn't glanced in her bedroom on the way in. Considering how small the place was, he wasn't even sure she had one.

He'd seen the fight she'd been in that night. Had patiently watched her try to take on three guys at once while the teenaged girl they'd been bothering fled to safety, far from the dark, winding back alleys of New Orleans.

She'd done well for herself, kept to her training. Things hadn't gotten heavy until a downed opponent had whipped out a butterfly knife and hamstringed her while she engaged one of his buddies. She'd instantly crumpled to the ground in a heap. That was when Logan had come close to intervening, even though he knew she'd be pissed later.

But, fortunately or unfortunately, at that point the cops showed up, possibly having been called by the girl Sadi had been fighting to protect. He'd nearly lost her as she scrambled to her feet and ran one way to avoid being seen, while he'd been forced to run the other.

In spite of all the animal instincts he supposedly possessed as a part of his mutation, Wolverine had gotten lost in the strange territory. It didn't happen often--not so much because he was so like an animal as most people believed, but simply because his sharp senses and training made him more aware of being in a familiar place. Or, on the opposite side of the coin, being in an unfamiliar place. Instinct, more often than not, had nothing to do with it.

He did lose his way...on occasion...

It had taken him at least half an hour to backtrack far enough to pick up the fading scent of familiar blood. Of Sadi's...blood. The trail had been scattered at first, almost random; but the smell of her sweat and stress marked the air, and led him true. She'd run for a long time while leading her less-subtle pursuers on a wild chase for blocks and blocks before she'd run into a laundry mat, up two flights of stairs, and had finally shaken them off her trail when she ran into a women's bathroom, jumping into an open dumpster from a third story window.

She'd been lucky. Lucky like her Pop had always been lucky when it came to trying stupid stunts. She'd gotten out of the trash heap, and hid behind the same dumpster for some amount of time. Long enough to leave behind a tiny pool of blood, anyway.

From there it hadn't been hard to once again find her apartment.

But what to do with her now that he _had_ found her?

After tying a towel around her wound to slow the bleeding, Logan propped up her legs on pillows to help with the shock. Then he crouched down by her head, considering her still form. He slowly reached over to touch her face, patting her cheek gently with a calloused palm.

"Come on, Squirt, time to wake up," he said real low, brushing strands of her reddish-brown hair out of her face with his thumb. He wasn't entirely sure she should be allowed to sleep at that instant in time. For all he knew, she might die in her sleep.

He was almost relieved when she started to come around, groaning softly. "Mm, Logan?" she whispered, dully.

"Right here, kiddo."

She opened her eyes slightly, squinting at him. Almost in a haze, she reached over and weakly grabbed him by the hair just behind his left temple, enunciating each word with a short tug. "Don't...scare...me...like...that...again. I could've shot you!" she groaned weakly.

He smirked. "You don't have to worry about me. I've got a hard head," he held, sounding mostly serious, glad to see she apparently took comfort in his familiar dry humor. He'd always liked kids, and had taken no small number under his wing over the years. Sadi was one of the loners he liked to think he'd helped some. Teaching her had been one of the good things he'd done in life--everyone told him so. Everyone but the Cajun.

Ol' Gumbo had mostly just told him to back the fuck off.

Not that he'd encouraged the kid to follow him around. She just had...ever since she was able to walk. There had been times over the past two decades when he'd wondered if just maybe Magneto was right about humans, but then he'd think back on that crazy little girl trailing around behind him like a lost cub, and he'd remember why he fought for Xavier's cause. On more than one occasion, she'd served as a reminder that there were still non-mutants out there worth fighting for.

Softly, he stroked her wet hair. It was a gesture he remembered seeing Remy use to calm his daughter during her frequent bouts of asthma. "Listen, Squirt, I don't know how much blood you've lost, especially taking that hot shower. The bleeding might not stop on its own. I'm going to have to take you to a hospital. Sit up a little, so I can get my arms under ya, okay?" He moved to pick her up, but she grabbed his wrist almost frantically, her breathing suddenly speeding up again, her eyes widening with panic.

"No, no hospitals. I...can't. I'm wanted by the police. Go out to the payphone down the block and call my gran-pop. He'll know what to do," she panted, reaching to clutch at the edge of his jacket and pulled him closer, slumping against his chest after she finished pleading with him.

Wolverine sighed, reluctantly letting an arm come to rest on her back as a comforting gesture. His eyes rolled to look up at the ceiling. What the hell was he getting himself into?

_Whatever the hell it is, I'll just bet that before it's over, Gumbo'll be rolling in his grave. The real surprise being that for once, I actually give a damn..._


	4. Shouldn't be There

The doctor Jean-Luc sent over was fast, efficient, and stiff beyond simply being professional. More than once Wolverine caught himself on the verge of growling at the Doc for being too rough with the kid while he stitched her up.

Sadi was lying on her stomach on the couch, doped to the gills with Novocain and barely conscious, her body covered by a blanket he'd found at the doctor's request. There was a drip hooked up to her arm, replacing any fluids she might've lost. The doc had said the girl's blood pressure was dangerously low, but given time to rest, she'd be fine.

Logan stood across the room, leaning against the far wall with his arms crossed over his chest, watching the doctor very carefully while acting completely unconcerned. He was good at that, pretending that he didn't give a damn about what went on around him, when in reality he picked up on even the tiniest details.

The Doc finally left after giving him brief instructions on the nature of Sadi's care over the next few days, and a bottle of antibiotics to dose her with to ward off infection. When he was gone, Logan sat down in a chair next to the sleeping girl.

After an hour or two of studying the side of her face, he found himself wondering what her mother looked like. Sadi hadn't inherited a great deal of her father's features. She didn't have his eyes or his nose, but she did smirk like the Cajun, even had some of his trickster-esk presence when she entered a room. Funny that he didn't find the qualities she possessed irritating, like he had with Remy.

In spite of his differences with her father, he'd found himself thinking about Gambit a lot lately. Thinking about whether or not he had it in him to sacrifice himself, to give up everything to protect someone he loved.

Jean, Storm, Jubilee. All were the names of women he'd ever cared about. Even his wife. The one he hadn't been able to save...

More out of self-destructive tendencies than anything, he'd been telling himself that without a doubt, Remy Lebeau would've found a way to save Mariko. The Cajun would've been savvier in the ways of guilds, gangs, and clans. With his sharp mind, he would've found a solution that Wolverine hadn't ever considered, because Logan was nothing more than a brute. Hack and slash the world into the shape of peace and justice? Yeah, like that had ever worked out for anyone...

That brought him to Sadi... He hadn't thought about her much the past few years, but lately all roads seemed to lead him back to the girl, and with a wry grin on his face he mused that it must be fate. The crazy bitch that went by so many names, including Destiny, never seemed to tire of fucking with his head. Now he just had to ask himself whether or not he was strong enough to pass through her life on this spontanous little visit without pulling her down with him.

That was why he was there, right? So he'd have company when he at last fell into the abyss? That was the animal in him in a nutshell. The thing that kept getting him in trouble, and kept dragging the people he cared about right in with him.

_Not her, not this time,_ he swore to himself. As soon as the kid was healed up, he was out of there. Out of the city and out of her life.

He should never have come back in the first place.


	5. Get Out

Logan spent the night sleeping in that chair, and didn't wake up until late the next morning to the sound of a hushed argument in the next room. He sat up abruptly, looking at the couch, only to find Sadi gone. The kid must've gotten pretty sneaky over the past four years to slip away without waking him, especially with an injured limb.

The Wolverine heaved himself to his feet, shaking his head to try to rid himself of his morning haze, before loudly cracking his neck to each side. He was in no hurry to get in the middle of the argument his sharp hearing picked up on. If the man Sadi was quarreling with her grandfather, then Logan definitely didn't want to get caught in the cross-fire. During the years Gambit and Sadi had lived in the mansion, Logan had learned well that fights between Lebeaus were fierce things indeed, and it was best for everyone else to mind their own business.

Not that anyone had minded their own business. If nothing else, the X-Men were exceedingly talented sticking their noses into the business of their teammates.

Walking into the insanely small kitchen, Wolverine found Jean-Luc Lebeau sitting at the small three-seater table that was really only big enough for two. Sadi limped around in sweats and a long sleeved t-shirt, getting herself breakfast. The two Lebeaus were silent when he entered the room, but shortly after Logan arranged himself in his regular bad-ass pose in the doorway, Jean-Luc continued the previous conversation.

"Be reasonable, Petite. I know what protecting other people means t' you, but this jes ain't the way t' make a difference. Now you've gotten hurt, and you can't do any work for at least a week, maybe two."

"I know, I know," Sadi insisted, sounding more than a bit hot under the collar about the entire subject. She slammed a cereal bowl down on the table and then limped quickly the two steps to her small fridge, taking out a half-gallon of milk before slamming the door shut again. "Believe me, I know! I know my half of the rent is due on this shit hole, and I don't have it. I know if it's late one more time, my bitch of a landlady is going to evict me! And yes, I know if I asked, you'd spot me the money. But I don't want any more help! If I can't do it on my own, then I need to move on. I've been here too long anyway; I should get out of here."

Jean-Luc didn't exactly look like an old man, but a lifetime of anxiety had streaked his hair grey, proving to be the only sign of his true age. He sighed as he considered the daughter of his adopted son, and Logan wondered if Jean could see a teenaged Remy sitting there in her place.

"Mr. Wolverine, I presume?" he asked, not turning his gaze from the girl slurping down Cheerios before him.

Wolverine grunted an affirmative, not even shifting his posture.

Jean-Luc got to his feet with a grace one wouldn't expect to see from the man, making his way toward Sadi's front door. He motioned in Wolverine's direction, beckoning him to follow. "Join me fo' a cigarette outside, mon ami. The smoke makes my granddaughter sick."

Logan shrugged, reluctantly leaving his doorway to join the leader of the thieves' guild on the second story walkway outside of Sadi's apartment. The two men leaned against the rail, looking down at the view of the parking lot below, neither speaking as they each lit up.

After a moment or two of tense silence, Jean-Luc glanced over at the Wolverine, staring at him from the corner of his eye. "You would've made an excellent thief," Jean-Luc commented, waving the white flag early.

Logan merely shrugged. It was true, but that didn't mean he had to like it. "I don't think that's what you dragged me out here to say, old man," he replied, not bothering with a flag of any color.

Jean-Luc blew out a smoke ring or two, but they were hard to make out against the bright morning sky. "No, I didn't. Of course, you realize since my son threw his life away, I have felt something of an obligation t' look after his child."

Strangely enough, Wolverine felt himself bristling at the man's comment about how the Cajun died. He'd never particularly liked Remy, but what he'd done...Well, it deserved respect, and it chafed Logan's sense of code to hear Gambit's own father speak so poorly of his adopted son's defining end.

"Gumbo did a lot of stupid things in his time, Mr. Lebeau, but throwing his life away wasn't one of them. I was there, I held Sadi back while she watched her father sacrifice himself to keep her safe from Sinister. The entire world is a safer place now because of what your son did, and I hope someday you can bring yourself to fucking appreciate it," the shorter man growled, turning to look away from the master thief.

A moment passed, and then another, before Jean-Luc began again, his usual New Orleans accent faded from his somber speech. "I made many mistakes with Remy. Mistakes I don't wish to repeat with his daughter, Wolverine. I brought you out here to tell you I want you out of Sadi's apartment by the end of the day. Even as a child, I know she held a great deal of affection for you. Reappearing just in time to save her after four years of absence was fortunate timing. But, I'm afraid Sadi will see it as more. I know you understand what I'm speaking of; you've had much experience dealing with sometimes-foolish young girls, and their fantasies. From the prospective of a guild leader regarding one of my thieves, I can't have my girl under stress that would detract from her ability to concentrate on her work. Or, heaven forbid, have her become pregnant. As a grandfather, I will not stand by and watch her heart be broken when another man she loves is torn from her life.

"I believe we both agree that Sadi has suffered enough for one lifetime, do we not?"

"Then be honest, Jean-Luc. Do you like seeing her steal things for a living?" Logan asked, turning a critical gaze on the man, ignoring the implication that the Wolverine had any intention of sleeping with Gambit's daughter.

Sadi's grandfather only shook his head. "I know as well as you this isn't the life for her. Helping people, now that I think would be more appropriate. She isn't the girl she used to be. She was always stubborn, but now she's downright impossible. When she came here, I told her she could live with me, go to school, live a normal life. She didn't want a normal life. Not then, anyway. In so many ways she has grown old beyond her years, yet she is still just a child."

"And what if I told you I came here to ask her back to Xavier's school, to finish her education?" Wolverine asked, lying through his teeth in a sense. He hadn't sought Sadi out to take her anywhere, just to check up on her, mostly. Or so he'd thought.

Then again, until that very moment, he hadn't had any intention of going back to Xavier's in the near future. As far as he'd been concerned, his time there was through, just like it was for many of the X-Men.

Jean-Luc shrugged. "I suppose as her grandfather, I couldn't argue with an offer like that, if you were able to convince her to go."

Logan eyed him. "And what about as the leader of her guild?"

The taller man shrugged, dropping his cigarette and stepping on it to extinguish the burning end. As he turned to go back inside the girl's apartment, he said over his shoulder, "I suppose that she isn't of much use to the guild until she heals, is she, Mr. Wolverine?"

Logan scoffed. In his mind, the guild wasn't of much use to Sadi.

Never the other way around.


	6. Tears to Heal

Shortly after Jean-Luc left, Sadi took a long, much needed nap on her futon. When she woke again, she limped out to the kitchen with blurry eyes, and ruffled hair.

Logan had been sitting at the table reading the morning paper, even though it was obviously early evening. When she half-stumbled into the room, he looked up just long enough to shove a bottle of pills in her direction across the smooth wood finish.

"You need to take one of those. It'll keep that cut on the back of your leg from getting infected," he informed her matter-of-factly, before returning to the article he'd been reading about new mutant-oriented legislation being introduced by members of Congress. He was so bored he actually found himself reading about politics.

Scowling, Sadi grabbed the bottle of pills off the table, and limped over to a cupboard, pulling out a bottle of bourbon. She popped a pill, and then unscrewed the top and washed it down with hard, fast gulps of the harsh liquor.

Curious, Wolverine looked at her over the paper, one eyebrow slowly arching. Funny, he didn't remember him or the Cajun teaching the kid that trick.

She made a round on the cupboard and the fridge, taking the bottle with her, and found the places where normal people kept food freshly stocked. She turned slowly, casting her own curious gaze in his direction.

"Why did you buy all this stuff?" she asked, deadpan, her green eyes appearing dark and unreadable in the low lighting.

Logan shrugged. "Got hungry, and you didn't have anything decent to eat. Besides, we're leaving tomorrow. Long trip, we're gonna need some grub." With that he went back to reading his paper for a moment, before looking up at her again. "Another thing... If your pop had seen you downing booze like you just did after he fought with alcoholism for twenty years, I'm pretty sure he would've throttled you. Never mind that it makes you just about the biggest hypocrite I know. And that's saying something, considering I know the entire Summers family personally."

Once again she turned her back on him. "You don't know anything about me. Sure, I got on dad's case for drinking when I was a kid. It turned him ugly, and he always ignored me when he'd get sauced. I'd feel like I didn't have a dad most days of the week until he finally quit. This isn't like that. It only hurts me, and mostly it doesn't hurt at all. Not compared to some things..."

"Yeah, well. You can't hide in a bottle forever. As of tomorrow, you're drying up. Go ahead and argue, make my week," he challenged dryly.

Sadi shook her head. The most subtle of quavers entered her voice when she spoke, "I'm not stupid, I know where you're planning to take me. I promised myself I'd never go back there."

Logan folded up the paper and laid it down. He crossed the room, grabbing her roughly by the shoulders and spinning her around to face him, easily restraining her. She struggled at first, but she was still weak from injury, and soon grudgingly relented. Her eyes dropped in defeat.

"Look at you, Sadi. You can hardly throw a decent fit when you don't get your way. How the hell do you think you're going to do anyone any good in this condition? Or maybe it isn't just because you're hurt. Maybe it's because you're human, and you're a girl. Perfectly ordinary. Funny, isn't it? Lots of mutants would kill to be just like you, but you don't appreciate it at all."

"What do you want?" she hissed, keeping her eyes glued to the floor even with her temper rising.

Logan squeezed her shoulders tight enough to make her wince, wanting to make sure he had her full attention. "I want you to act like you're aware your father died to keep you safe. He died so you could grow into a young woman with a chance of making something of yourself. He died for Sadi Lebeau. A kid who used to follow me around, imitating every move I made. She had her share of baggage, just like everyone else, but she dealt with it."

Sadi's shoulders slumped, the soft smell of salt betrayed the tears forming in her eyes. "What if she died with him?" she whispered, voice close to cracking. "I didn't know how to be normal before, and after I just fell apart. I had to go, I couldn't stand it," she choked, leaning toward him, burying her face against his shoulder.

Logan pulled her close, holding her against his chest while she sobbed.

Damn he was good. He didn't enjoy making young girls cry, but he'd gotten enough experience with Jubilee and Amiko over the years to figure out even the toughest females were far easier to deal with after they let it all out. The tears Sadi shed during her brief meltdown were probably long overdue. After watching Gambit sacrifice himself, the kid had gone into complete shock. Hadn't even reacted to the fact during the days that followed before she took off.

Nothing natural about holding things like that in for so long. Once she had the chance to settle down, they'd talk about leaving and she would agree to go, even if only until her physical wounds healed.

Just like clockwork these women, nothing complicated about it.


	7. Speech

AN: Sorry for the wait. I'm just too busy for this writing stuff a lot of the time.

* * *

"Are they going to hate me?" Sadi asked tentatively as Logan's old beat-up truck pulled into the driveway of the Xavier Institute. 

"Nope," he responded vaguely. During the trip he'd spoken relatively few words in comparison to the conversations they'd had late into the night in her kitchen back in New Orleans.

"The Professor's gone, isn't he?" she asked sadly. "And Jean too."

Wolverine didn't flinch at the mention of either absentee. "They'd be happy to see you back if they were still here, kid."

"That mean Mr. Summers is in charge of the school?"

"Yup."

"Crap, am I gonna get a lecture?"

"Yup."

"Unavoidable?"

Logan glanced over at her, one brow slightly quirked. "What do _you_ think?" he asked rhetorically.

Sadi nodded. "Yeah, okay, it's inevitable." For a whole two seconds she sat quietly chewing her nails before sitting up and looking at him again. "Are you still any good at pissing him off? Cause I'll just bet you could run a great diversion for me..."

"No."

"But I'm sure if I slipped past him a few times he'd give up..."

"_No_. Jesus, Sadi, have you really been gone that long? You know ol' Cyke is a bulldog. He bites down, and he never lets go. Especially now. When Jean was around he could on the rarest of occasions refrain from being a complete dick, but now he's just relentless."

She crossed her arms over her chest, trying to repress the chills going through her at the familiar sight of the mansion. "Think they'll lay off at least until after I've seen the grave?"

The Wolverine gripped the wheel tight, making the leather creak. He looked away. "I'll make sure of it, kid."

* * *

"She's just, wow," Alex Summers commented, gazing out the window at the girl standing with her back to the building in the X-Men's little graveyard. 

Bobby Drake shoved in next to him, letting his blue-frosted sun glasses slide down his nose for a better look. He whistled low just before their fearless leader dropped the shades right in front of him, effectively giving Sadi her privacy from their prying eyes.

"She's what, Summers?" Logan growled, having come to rest half-sitting on the front of the Professor's old desk, tense arms crossed over his broad chest.

Alex shrugged, shoving his hands into the pockets of his cargos when he turned from the window. "She's really grown up, so much I hardly recognize her. Don't get me wrong--she's still just a kid. Was she always so serious?" he asked, brow furrowing.

"Pfft, dude, of course she was always serious," Bobby scoffed, pushing his shades back up the bridge of his nose. "Where were _you_ her whole life? Huh? Did you have one conversation with her the entire sixteen years she lived here?"

The tall blonde shrugged again, apparently refusing to get angry at Iceman's prompting. After so many years, they were all used to the petty squabbles that bounced back and forth between the two heroes. "Yeah, I talked to her, one time after you kicked the shit out of me in the danger room, Drake. Asked me what happened to my face, and I beat around the bush; she told me I'd make a good lawyer, or something like that."

"How's she been, Logan?" Scott asked, as usual sounding extraordinarily concerned.

Wolverine tilted his head, scuffing the wooden office floor with his boot. "Ah, you know, stealing valuable objects, playing vigilante, becoming jaded as hell... Kid's not bad in a fight, for a human girl..."

"How long do ya think she'll stay?" Iceman asked. "I mean, I seriously never thought she'd actually come home..."

"This was never her home," Logan interrupted, dark eyes looking up from under his cowboy hat. "Gumbo considered it his, and she stayed as long as he was here, but deep down she hated this place for the same reasons we hate living with homo-sapiens. She never fit in."

"I'm still confused as to why you even brought her here. I thought you were done with the X-Men. The next thing I know you drive in with Sadi Lebeau in tow. What gave?" Scott asked, his critical ruby stare resting solidly on the shorter man.

At that moment Storm and Beast entered the room, closing the door behind them.

"Logan, you've returned!" Ororo Monroe exclaimed, a pleasant smile gracing her features, a glint in her eye. "I believe I know someone who will be most pleased to hear the news."

Logan nodded in agreement, shifting almost uncomfortably on the desk. "Yeah, I'll just bet she will..." he replied, almost under his breath.

"So, you were about to tell us how exactly you convinced Sadi to come for this little visit?" Alex prompted, pausing in expectation.

"What's that particular piece of gossip worth to you in monetary terms?" Sadi asked softly, her silhouette situated against one side of the doorjamb in order to take the weight off her bad leg.

Wolverine pulled out a toothpick and stuck it between his back teeth. "Heh, told ya she got sneaky," he said matter-of-factly.

Half the room simply gaped at the girl as though seeing a ghost.

"Sadi," Ororo whispered, "I didn't realize you were coming."

"Neither did the rest of us," Cyclops reminded, still staring pointedly at Logan.

"I got hurt, Wolverine saved me," the girl began in explanation. "I came back to see my father's grave. I didn't stay for the funeral, and I thought it was time for me to pay my respects. I got to thinking while I was out there that Pop probably would've wanted me to at least finish high school, so if I could, I'd like to stay here until I finish my GED at a community college. I don't think it would take more than a few months. I think if I went back to New Orleans I'd probably lose my motivation, you know?"

"Of course you're welcome, my dear," Beast said for them all. "Lord knows we've been worried about you."

Sadi's head dropped to her chest in shame. "Yeah, about that. I'm sorry I just ran off. I promise I won't do that again without telling anyone. Not that it did me any good the first time, Logan found me anyway..."

"Not hard to do with a kid who's got only one living relative," Wolverine assured her, though he knew the sentiment wouldn't heal the girl's pride any. She was a Lebeau, her heart would always remain on her sleeve.

A whoosh of air brushed against his skin as Bobby barreled past them all, rushing over to grab Sadi up in a massive bear-hug. "I'm finally a real teacher, and my favorite student came back! I haven't had anyone around to help me prank people in forever!"

Sadi giggled as Iceman spun her around, hugging the handsome young man back with all her might. Ironic that Bobby had been the one to realize someone needed to _break the ice_ between Sadi and the adults in the room, Logan mused. He smirked a little, glad that the boy was finally putting those cheery people-skills of his to non-irksome use.

Soon the two _children_ were off, Sadi riding on Bobby's back, having quickly accepted his offer to escort her to her new room.

Logan scratched lightly at his forehead under his cowboy hat, deciding it was probably time he went down to collect the bags sitting in the back of his truck. There were only two. He and the kid both lived light.

"I'm going to need to talk to her," Scott reminded gently while the still-stunned Beast, Storm, and Havok exited out the door.

"I know," Wolverine said, absently popping his claws on one hand and cleaning his nails on the other. "But in case ya didn't notice, bub, the girl's nose was red and her eyes were bloodshot. She does a good job hidin' it, but seein' where her father's buried hit somethin' deep. Until she's ready, you're gonna keep whatever speech ya've got cooked up to yerself."

Cyclops nodded before the two men parted company in silence.


	8. Home

AN: A lot of fluff in this one, but I think it'll get better later once the action starts rolling. -crosses fingers- Sorry about the wait. School, ya know.

* * *

He smelled her before he saw her. That familiar scent of _her_. He loved it, but at that moment, it made him a little nauseous. Reminded him of the circumstances under which he'd left. 

"Didn't bail on you, ya know," he started off tentatively, lifting the two bags from the bed of the rusted blue truck. "If I hadn't come back, I would've sent for you..."

"I know," she replied, her hand settling lightly on the small of his back. She stood on tip toe, pecking him on the cheek. "I knew you'd be back sooner or later, after you got some of the wanderlust out. I'm just surprised you actually found..."

"There's nothing serious between me and her," he added quickly, almost as if afraid she thought...

Kitty laughed, her arms wrapping around his waist. "Oh Jesus, Logan, I know that! I _was_ around back when she followed you everywhere. Sadi was absolutely adorable as a child. When Gambit died, we all knew you'd feel responsible for her."

"Jean Luc seemed to think I had the intention of taking advantage of her," he explained, shifting the weight of both bags to one arm, and pulling his wife of almost a year-and-a-half close to his side.

Kitty rolled her eyes playfully. "_Well_, if you'd just wear the ring like you're supposed to, you probably would get less of that from concerned grandfathers. As it is, I'm just glad to have you back home."

Wolverine scoffed a little. "Home, huh? Sometimes I wonder if this is any sort of home anymore, or just a graveyard waiting to claim us all." He scanned her briefly out of the corner of his eye. "So really, what gives? Why aren't you pissed?"

She shrugged, sighing contentedly upon snuggling up close to his side. "You took a communicator with you. I was one cry of 'wolf' away from having you back here within a few days. You're really not as much of a badass loner as you'd like us to believe. You have strings, just like everyone. Some more binding than others," she mused, guiding the hand he had on her hip to her lower midsection.

Wolverine halted dead in his tracks, looking down on her. "You trying to tell me something, Kathryn?"

Kitty shrugged, still smiling serenely. "Nothing you don't want to know." Stepping forward she took his hand, and led him up toward the mansion. "Now come on, I want to go visit with Sadi before dinner. If I'm lucky, I'll actually be able to convince her to go shopping for clothes with me and Ororo. I'll bet she doesn't have a single decent piece of feminine clothing in that bag..."

* * *

"We kept all your things," Bobby assured her while they worked together to put sheets on her small dorm room bed. It wasn't the same room she'd had that adjoined with her father's, that one had long since been taken by a pair of young mutant siblings, so the two children would always be close at night. 

Sadi tried to smile at Iceman, and practically failed. "That's nice, but you didn't have to. I really never had any plans to come back. No offense," she added.

"I'm sorry," he said, glancing shyly at her across the blanket they were spreading across her new bunk. "I'm sorry about your dad and everything... We basically grew up together. I was more than ten years older than you, but it still felt like we were almost..."

"Siblings?" Sadi supplied, smiling wolfishly.

Iceman chuckled. "Yeah, siblings. I babysat you so much, we might as well've been brother and sister."

Sadi blushed a little. "Yeah, well, I had a crush on you from age seven to ten, and I don't think that's very sisterly."

Bobby grinned too. "I know you did. I remember when you'd sit in my lap by the lake, and pretend to use my powers to make ice sculptures. You said you were going to have all the mutations when you grew up. It—made me think about my life, more than once. It reminded me how lucky I am--especially when it turned out you didn't have a mutation."

Sadi grinned wolfishly. "Yeah, I guess you were pretty lucky to have me around," she joked.

"So..." he continued after a moment's pause, carefully keeping his eyes on the bedspread his hands were smoothing. "Tell me about being a vigilante in New Orleans."

Her eyes jumped to his face. The comment caught her off-guard. She wondered if she should feel angry or ashamed."That's strange," she finally said, avoiding his gaze. "I don't remember Logan being such a gossiper."

Bobby shrugged. "Yeah, well, that makes two of us."

Sadi's features smoothed, turning stoic. The lines etched into her face told she'd worn that same damaged expression more often than not the past four years. "So, I guess he probably told you I was a thief too, didn't he?"

Iceman shrugged. "What's it matter? Your father was a thief, and he got along all right here. I just..." he paused, as if trying to think of the words he needed. He reached out, brushing his thumb across her cheek. "I just don't want you to feel like you need to leave again. I missed having you around. I'm not going to lie and say everyone did, because I know they didn't. There were mutants here who didn't like you, because you're human--but I liked having a little sister."

"I'm not any use around here," she admitted, both to him and to herself.

Bobby smiled gently. "I don't know about you, but I've sort of made a career out of being useless. My videogame collection can attest to that."

Sadi smirked, tossing a pillow at him.


	9. Wake Up

Logan knocked on her door jam not long after Bobby left. Her bag hung from the Canadian's shoulder.

"Just drop it anywhere. I'll unpack later, after chow," she said, trying to muster a smile.

Wolverine shrugged, unzipping the bag and pulling out a handful of shirts and jeans, tossing them on the floor, followed closely by the rest of the bag's contents. He looked around, nodding as though pleased with his handiwork before allowing the duffle itself to drop.

Sadi arched an eyebrow at the mess. "You really have changed. I remember you giving me shit about letting my floor get cluttered up. Used to say I'd trip over it in the dead of night if the mansion got raided."

"Yeah, well, I figured since you never bothered to clean up your room to save your life, ya probably won't bother picking it up in order to run off without telling anyone," Logan replied, his smugness covered almost completely by a serious demeanor. He took a few steps over and sat down next to her on the bed, scooting over close and slinging an arm around her shoulders.

She didn't need the comfort at that moment, but Sadi appreciated the gesture. She leaned against her... What? What was Logan to her? Not her brother... An uncle, perhaps? That sounded more like it.

"I gotta tell you something, Sadi. It's sorta important..." he trailed off, shifting uncomfortably beside her.

"You need the twenty bucks I borrowed in Atlanta?" she deadpanned, breaking the mood and making him chuckle.

"No, kid, I don't need the twenty bucks. Na, I wanted to tell ya, before you find out from someone else, that Kitty and I—we're, uh..."

"Dating?"

"Not exactly."

"Engaged?"

"We're married, kid. It's a way, way long story, and..."

"Why?" she asked brashly.

Logan paused, his brow creased in puzzlement. "Why, what? Why Kitty?"

Sadi's eyes fell. "No. I mean, why'd you get married? I never took you as the type to actually go through with it again without some pretty strong motivation..."

"Sadi," Wolverine growled in warning, finally getting the gist of her question.

The girl blushed slightly, still unable to look at him. "I just wanted to know because—you know where I came from. Or rather, you don't. No living person knows for sure. I don't think Remy even knew. I got dropped on a doorstep, Logan. I'm still dropping on people's doorsteps, relying on their charity. I just wanted to know upfront if I need to be careful when I'm talking to Kitty. I don't want to step on any toes without realizing it. I do remember how you guys always seemed to walk on razor blades after living and working together for so long."

A sigh escaped him, and Logan pulled her more tightly under his arm. "No, it wasn't like that. It just started slow, and grew into something unexpected. Thinking back on it, your Pop might've had something to do with it. His passing reminded all of us there's no time like the present. By the way, how would you feel about an assistant teaching position? You know, earn a little money while working on your diploma?"

Sadi finally looked up at him, a weird expression on her face. "Just what would I teach? And who?"

Logan shrugged. "I don't know. I thought you could help me teach the brats—I mean the kids—self-defense."

She laughed, rolling her eyes toward the ceiling in disbelief. "In all the years I went to school here, I never got to train with the other kids. They would've kicked my ass. Now I'm supposed to teach them? What exactly makes me qualified to do that?"

"You've fought regular Joe criminals and done all right for yourself. These kids get so used to using their powers to defend themselves, they take for granted a life without that power. Without a mutation, most of them would get creamed in a fight. Beyond that, they underestimate the danger humans pose to them. I want them to see a human fighter in action. I want them to learn to respect you, and the race you represent."

His words gave her pause, and Sadi rose from the edge of the bed, carefully removing his arm from her shoulders. "I don't think I represent any race, Logan. My father was Remy Lebeau. I don't even know my mother's identity. I'm so confused about myself, I wouldn't know where to start if I had to explain my own origin."

Wolverine too stood, shoving rough hands deep into his jacket pockets. "I think you'll be surprised how easy it is to define yourself once you have an outlet for expression. The others'll be wantin' to see ya yet tonight, Squirt. Try not to disappoint them."

He left without another word.

* * *

_Her eyes hurt when struck by the brightness of the plane surrounding her. She stood alone, gazing around until she spotted her father. Or at least a tall man who looked like him, wearing a brown trench coat._

"_Dad! Pop, wait!" she called. He didn't seem to hear her. He turned and walked away, slowly fading into the whiteness. No matter how she ran, Sadi couldn't catch up._

_She continued to call after him, but he never slowed, never glanced back. Without warning, the ground fell out from under her feet mid-stride. The fall knocked the air from her, sending waves of adrenaline coursing through her body. When she opened her eyes, she found herself surrounded by fire._

"Sadi, wake up. Wake up now..." Jean's voice. That tingling sensation at the base of her skull. The soothing presence, so close and familiar, it almost felt like the woman sat right beside her. In-between sleep and wakefulness, she could almost sense her lost friend's personality touching her mind.

"Sadi!"

With a gasp she sat bolt upright in bed, the flames surrounding her fading. She rose from her bed, walking purposefully out the door and down the hall. The mansion sprawled like a gigantic maze to a stranger, but her feet took her straight to her destination. A room, at the end of a hallway. She opened it, finding a clutter of boxes, dust, and emptiness.

"Is there any particular reason why you're wandering the halls at such an ungodly hour, Miss. Lebeau?" a refined, cultured voice enquired from just behind her.

Sadi gasped, turning to see the White Queen standing there, waiting for an answer. After a moment, one smooth blonde brow arched in challenge. "And why can't contact you by thought, young lady?"

She opened her mouth to defend herself, explain why she'd gone to this room so late at night. Why she found herself drawn to it. But she couldn't. She'd already forgotten.

"Who's room was this?" she asked, keeping the venom out of her tone after Emma so blatantly treated her like a child.

The woman merely crossed her arms over her chest. "I don't honestly know. Why do you care? It's been used for storage as long as I've taught here."

Sadi paused, again surveying the room. Why _did_ she care?

She couldn't say...


	10. On Your Guard

"This is the one," she said, opening the door. Sadi folded her arms over her chest, standing back to allow Cyclops a look inside. "When Miss. Frost found me, it almost felt like I'd woken up from sleep walking. I couldn't remember why I'd come here, or what was so important. All I remember is feeling empty, like something's missing that should be here."

"Hmm," the ruby-eyed headmaster said, half shrugging in added response. "I don't know, Sadi. It was Jean's room once, but only briefly. A whole number of students have gone through it. Now it's just used for storage. I think I do remember your father bunking down here for a while. Colossus had it. Bobby might've, but it's been so long I can't really remember."

"That's some track record, no wonder it's used for storage. All the people we know for sure stayed here are dead," Sadi commented dully. She paused, indecisive about what to say next. "I do remember Jean speaking to me. For a second, it felt like she was sitting right next to me, telling me to wake up. Maybe it was part of the dream, but it felt real..."

She watched his features closely out of the corner of her eye, but behind his quartz glasses his face remained perfectly smooth.

Cyclops shut the door after another moment of silent deliberation, then smiled at her a little. "There do seem to be a few ghosts lurking in these corridors. Psychic residue, in most cases. You've always been an oddball from a psi perspective, Sadi. You don't have a mutation, but the Professor always found you difficult to sense when you were unemotional. You've been away a long time. You might be sensitive to the mutant energy bombarding your senses. Give it a few days, and we'll see if the nightmares don't fade."

She nodded. His answer did seem to make sense.

"I have a training session with Logan now," she said, her mind drawing in to process this new theory.

Scott nodded. "I'll walk you to the danger room."

* * *

Logan wasted no time putting her on center stage. He made the third years stretch, jog, spar each other for ten minutes, and then he directed them to line up. Each would face her, individually. No powers allowed. The penalty for using a mutation was a one way ticket to detention with the Wolverine. 

There was, however, no penalty for shoving to the front of the line. When she took a moment to look up from her warm-ups, Sadi realized she had a serious problem on her hands. A small tank of a boy stood across from her with his arms crossed over his chest, and a malicious grin on his face.

She took it based on his demeanor that he prided himself on being mean, and he lost no love on humans.

"Bow to each other," Logan ordered.

Sadi bowed, never taking her eyes off the bull about to charge her.

"Ready. Begin."

He charged, accelerating toward her faster than she could've imagined possible. Without thinking, she dropped and rolled to the side, slapping the ground to break her fall, and narrowly missing the seemingly unpreventable collision.

On her feet in an instant, she attempted to return the fright she'd just experienced. The pain that shot through her leg when she pushed off it thwarted her effort. Although she threw herself once again to the side, the boy's fist connected briefly with her shoulder, and her whole arm went numb.

"Attack him harder, Lebeau. He's stronger than most of the toughs you tried to handle in the Big Easy."

She growled, circling with the boy she fought. She knew better than to complain to Logan about injury. He had no concept of the frustration normal people experienced while waiting for their bodies to slowly heal.

The boy smiled his cocky grin and came at her, sending a sweeping kick at her knees. She got the feeling he'd noticed where her pain originated from, and he wished to cause her much, much more.

Instead of jumping, Sadi immediately fell to one knee, bracing for the blow and catching the youth's leg between her midsection and her arm. Compromising his balance, she stood up, forcing him onto his back.

Her free hand found its way to his throat, and she squeezed hard when he tried to wrestle her off.

"Fucking whore!" he growled in frustration.

She squeezed harder, cutting off his air.

Logan had to pull her off him.

The boy got sent to the end of the line to sulk after his unsympathetic teacher pulled him to his feet.

"The next one of you with a smart mouth gets whatever Miss. Lebeau can dish out. Cussing out an opponent for beating you won't save your life in my class, or anywhere else. Now who's next?" Wolverine shouted, his words clipped with anger.

Not one of the students volunteered. All of them took a step back, their eyes falling to the ground in shame. She'd beaten the best of them. The very best, apparently. She couldn't even feel proud of the victory. They were just kids--probably in junior high.

Logan eyed them, obviously disgusted. "I hope none of you actually think you're better than this girl, that you've experienced more hardship. I expect every one of you to fight her eventually. I also expect you to treat her with respect. Class dismissed."

Some of them still glared at her on their way out the door. She pretended not to notice, too absorbed in unwrapping the bindings on her knuckles.

"I wouldn't have killed him, you know," she said when the door to the danger room closed behind the last of them.

Logan shrugged in response. "I know. You fought pretty good, considering your knee nearly collapsed. They underestimated you. That sort of cockiness gets young mutants killed. I'm hoping having you kick their asses a few times will show them the error of calling themselves homo-superior."

Sadi smiled a little, balling up her wrappings. "You know, you almost sound like the Professor when you say things like that," she said, glancing over at him pacing a few yards from where she sat.

"Yeah?" he said, one eyebrow rising slightly.

Her smile turned slightly evil. "Except it sounds a hell of a lot meaner coming from you."

Logan shrugged. "Well, I guess that's all right then."


	11. Curses

"So, you and Logan, huh?" Sadi said, sipping a chocolate shake while sitting across from her older friend.

Kitty nodded with mock grimness. "Yup, me and the Wolverine. I sure didn't see it coming. I came back after nearly a year away, and things just seemed different. He saved my life a couple times on various missions, and before we knew it, sparks started flying everywhere. I guess we just got close enough in age, and after the time apart, it seemed more obvious."

"Yeah, he's a good choice for you, I think," Sadi said, trying to sound encouraging. She found Kitty's reluctant tone a little disheartening. "I saw the two of you together at dinner last night, and it surprised me how civilized he acted. He must really care for you, Kitty."

The young woman nodded, her eyes becoming strangely distant. "It's good he does. For a while after we got married, I wondered if I'd made a mistake. I worry about him sometimes, even though I probably shouldn't. I think he worries about me more, though."

Sadi shifted in her seat, bruised ribs complaining when she sighed. Ever since Logan's class that morning, she'd had to school herself in shallow breathing. Every time she forgot, her left side gave her a sharp reminder.

"Well, I think you've been a good influence on him. I'm not so sure I remember him as the type of guy who would've tried to get me to go back to school, even after my dad died. I didn't think he had it in him."

Kitty tried to smile, but it faded. "That's good to hear. Sometimes I'm afraid he doesn't have it in him to be a father."

Sadi shot a questioning glance toward the older woman, and her eyes widened a bit when Kitty nodded ever so slightly.

"Oh," she said at last, sitting back in the booth, the shock slowly sinking in. "Oh, wow."

* * *

A number of weeks passed slowly and uneventfully. The excitement generated by her return died down after a few days, and soon her old teachers started acting more like the people she remembered. They ignored her presence in the mansion for the most part, too busy with their lessons, love-dramas, and missions as the X-Men to spare her a thought. She never would've believed it possible, but the drop-off in attention was a relief. After years of working as a thief, excess attention made her uncomfortable. She liked to move stealthily through the mansion without attracting notice. 

Sadi continued to help Logan out with his defense class, although thus far she hadn't had the opportunity to fight again. Mostly she critiqued the students on technique and style. Some showed gratitude, some ignored her, a few glared daggers at her, and one gave her a hard kidney shot in passing when Logan stepped out of the room for a minute.

The worst part of teaching was she couldn't quit. The kids who hated her would see it as further human weakness. They would go on assuming they could do whatever they pleased to a subservient race if they thought they'd worn her down.

Sadi did find a place to relax and focus on something outside herself. Hank took her on as an assistant when he worked on the X-Jet's systems and computers. Technology had always fascinated her, and working with Beast gave her a chance to learn useful skills. When she wasn't studying, working out, or sleeping, typically one could find her tinkering with various pieces of equipment saved precisely for her experimentation.

Life wasn't always smooth, but it never had been at the mansion. Things seemed to go well, until the nightmares returned. The same dream repeated over, and over again. She'd see her father in a desert of snow, and she'd lose him in the dazzling glare of it.

More than once Sadi found herself standing in front of the same door she'd been standing in front of the first time she had her dream. She could never remember how she'd gotten there.

* * *

"Jab, cross. Left kick, right kick," Sadi instructed, holding the punching bag her student worked on. 

Hope Abbott, or Trance, followed the patterns of punches and kicks before moving on to a more difficult pattern.

"Why do you do this?" Hope asked, speaking without pausing in her exercises. "I don't want to sound mean, but couldn't you have gone to college by now? Why did you let this place suck you back here?"

Sadi let her mind wander from steadying the bag, thinking on her answer. "I don't know," she replied. "I don't know what to do with my life. I'm kinda sad, and messed up. I never wanted to come back here, but I'm not good at being alone. I liked seeing Logan when he found me. I liked letting him take charge, and drag me back here. The thing I hated most about this place was the lack of freedom, but now that I'm older it's so easy to just turn my brain off and let everyone else do my thinking for me. If you'd seen how I lived in New Orleans, you'd know I make some pretty shitty decisions when I try to think for myself."

"Huh," Hope said, finishing a set. The girl let her hands rest on her hips, taking a few minutes to catch her breath. "So, you don't believe in the curse then?"

Sadi's brow furrowed. "What curse?" she asked.

Hope looked around for Wolverine, knowing his tendency to look down on anyone chatting too much during his class. "Well, they say there're ghosts here. Now and then you'll hear a laugh, a whisper of conversation—but when you turn around, no one's there. I've seen people leave this place pissed enough to kill, and no matter how they swear they'll never come back, they always do. It's not normal. Ms. Frost detests the rumors, but lots of the kids think there may be so much psychic residue in this place from the Phoenix, and Professor Xavier, that it draws people back. The longer you stay, the harder it is to escape. That's the school's curse," she said, lowering her voice upon noticing Logan coming closer. "I don't know if you believe in it, but I do."

* * *

"Do you think this place is haunted?" Sadi asked Logan later, when they sat together in the kitchen, sharing a late lunch in relative silence.

The Wolverine grunted through his mouthful of taco, but she couldn't identify the sound as a negative, or affirmative.

"Who told you that?" he asked after swallowing and taking a drink.

Sadi shook her head, using her fork to cut a bite from her re-heated pizza slice. "I've just been having the weirdest dreams lately. I think I've been sleepwalking and everything. Did I sleepwalk as a child?" she asked, cursing when the food on her fork slipped off and fell on the table.

He shrugged, grabbing a bag of chips and lounging back in his chair. "Not exactly. My room was sort of across and diagonal from yours, and when you were really young you'd wander in every once in a while in the middle of the night, thinking you were in your Pop's room. It was more like you were mostly-asleep than sleepwalking. You'd ask me to come with you, then walk out when I didn't say anything. Usually you never remembered it."

Sadi gave him a skeptical look. "Did you actually ask me if I remembered it?"

Logan shrugged. "Probably not."

"I don't," she admitted.

He smirked knowingly, crunching into a chip. "Well, all things considered, that's probably for the best."

Sadi paused in attempting to tear a piece of crust off her already mutilated pizza. "Why?" she asked, a little horrified at what she might hear.

Logan just kept right on smirking, and didn't say a word.


	12. Nowhere

"Hank, do you think the mansion might be haunted?" Sadi asked Beast later that afternoon. The two of them were sitting in the Blackbird's engine room, doing some maintenance on the ship's navigation computer.

Sadi had both hands full of delicate computer parts, and she held them patiently so Beast could pick up each individual piece and explain its purpose to her before cleaning it and returning it to its place within the consol.

"Oh, I suppose it's as haunted as a place can get. I've heard you've had some exciting dreams lately, Sadi. May I assume that's why you're asking?" he replied, smiling kindly while dusting a small circuit board.

Sadi sighed. "That's part of it. One of the kids pointed out to me how many people leave this place and swear they won't come back, only to return in the not-so-distant future. They think the mansion's cursed, and it draws people back to it. I was wondering if there might be something to that. I never thought I'd come back."

Hank reached up to remove his glasses and wiped at his eyes. "I think you'll find as you grow older that it's not so uncommon for people to return to a place where they experienced some great hardship. Especially if their conscience tells them the reason they left was selfish, as was the case with many of the X-Men who left and returned. In your case, I would say returning may have been something of a rite of passage. The pain of losing your father subsided over the years, and you've returned to pay your respects. You're welcome here as long as you'd like to remain, but I think very few of us believe you will wish to stay for an extensive period of time. It was not your father's nature to settle for long when he was your age, and as much as some of us desire otherwise, in that way you're quite like him, Sadi."

The girl nodded, taking a long moment to think on his words. It wasn't often people told her what details of her personality came from Remy. She savored the moment, reflecting deeply on it.

The Blackbird's door opened and Cyclops entered the plane, immediately walking up to the front when he caught a glimpse of them. He was dressed in his uniform, and his face was all business.

"Cerebro just picked up on a distress signal from an X-Men communicator. How long until you can put the nav computer back together, Hank?"

Beast grabbed two parts from Sadi's hands, snapping them back into place under the consol. "It'll be at least five minutes," he said, waving her closer so he could grab another part.

Scott sighed. "All right. You'll have to come along, Sadi. Do you think you'll be able to keep yourself out of trouble?"

"Yeah. No problem," Sadi said, inching forward on her knees so Beast would have better access to the components she held out for him.

Within the next thirty seconds the rest of the active X-Men had loaded onto the plane, and Cyclops fired up the engine, manually flying the Blackbird out of the hanger bay and into the sky.

When Beast finished reconstructing the computer, he and Sadi found their seats and strapped in. Beast took the co-pilot chair, and Sadi sat down next to Logan.

Wolverine turned and shot her a smirk. "And you said Cyke wouldn't ever clear you for active duty."

Sadi only shook her head. "You know I'm not supposed to be here. I just hope whatever's going on doesn't wreck the plane, because I'm not sure how well I would deal with falling from this high," she said, her hands shaking as a splattering of memories flashed across her mind's eye.

The professor had taken away most of the pain of what had happened to her in the hours before her father died, but once in a while she could remember some tiny piece of the torture she'd endured at the hands of a maniac.

She hadn't even noticed her death grip on the arm rests until Bobby reached forward to cover her hand with his.

"It'll be okay, kiddo. It's probably just some former teammate who got a flat tire in the middle of nowhere. Even if it's not, we won't let anyone hurt you," Iceman said comfortingly.

Sadi nodded, but her throat remained bone dry, even as she tried to focus her attention elsewhere.

* * *

The place where they landed was a cold, white wasteland. It reminded Sadi so much of her nightmares a shiver went down her spine. 

"Ain't nothin' here, Cyke," Wolverine said, looking out at the nothing that surrounded the plane in every direction. "You sure this is the place?"

"Where are we?" Sadi asked, getting up to lean against the co-pilot's chair.

"Siberia," Cyclops answered cryptically. "The signal's coming from within three hundred yards of the ship. Whatever it is, it's close. Move out, X-Men. Sweep formation Delta. Sadi..."

"I know," she said, stopping him. "I'll stay with the ship."

Scott got up, patting her on the shoulder in passing. "Lock the door behind us," he said, heading to the back to put on his thermal gear.

Sadi let her chin come to rest on her fist. "Yeah," she said to herself. "That'll really help if this turns out to be a trap. Do you think Magneto would laugh hard enough to have a heart attack if I tried to keep him at bay by locking the door of a metal ship?"

"You never know. He just might," Bobby snickered before icing up and sliding out the Blackbird's open door.

Soon they all filed out, leaving her alone once the door closed behind them. Sadi sighed, slumping down into a seat and leaning back as far as it would go. She decided to take a nap, and hoped their search wouldn't last too long.

* * *

"You know, you're utterly worthless at searching for things in the snow, Drake," Logan growled at his search partner. The two of them had walked around for an hour already, and were reaching the end of their search perimeter. The Blackbird appeared to be a dark spec in the distance. 

"I make ice, I don't move it," Bobby snapped defensively. He took off on an ice chute, searching by getting himself high enough to look down on the ground.

Wolverine tried to sniff for a scent, but it was just too cold, and the wind was blowing too hard. He couldn't smell anything but Iceboy above him.

Logan's communicator crackled. "Cyclops to Iceman and Wolverine. Can you hear me?"

"Loud and clear, bub," Wolverine responded.

"Beast and Storm found someone. We're going to need to evac immediately to get him to a hospital. And, Logan..." Scott said, pausing indecisively.

"Still here, Cyke. What is it?" Wolverine asked, impatient. Something in Scott's voice struck him as spooky, and it put him on edge.

"It's just... You're not going to believe who it is. Get back to the Blackbird, ASAP."

"You got it. Wolverine out," Logan said, bending down to pick up some snow to fashion into a ball. He chucked it at Bobby's head.

Iceman whipped around, his chute following. "Hey, what was that for?"

"Time to head back," Logan shouted to him.

Bobby cursed to himself. "You could've just told me, you know!" he shouted, turning his chute toward the Blackbird.

Logan merely chuckled, taking off at a ground-eating lope.


	13. Lost

"Wake up, Sadi. Wake up!"

Sadi sat up, and found herself nearly blinded by the whiteness surrounding her. "Jean?" she said, looking around. There was nothing around her. Not for as far as she could see in the distance. There was no vegetation, no houses, nothing.

She was lying in the snow without a coat on, and her fingers and face already hurting from the wind whipping at her bare skin.

She was cold on the outside, but the cold fear that suddenly gripped her insides felt way worse.

This wasn't a dream. This was real.

Sadi scrambled to her feet, looking around for the Blackbird. If it was within several miles, she should've been able to see it across the flat tundra. She looked all around her, and saw absolutely nothing.

"Logan!" she shouted at the top of her lungs, hoping Wolverine's sharp hearing would pick up on his own name, even across a great distance.

The wind slapped her words back in her face, but she cried out again and again.

No one came. No one heard.

Sadi tried to tuck into herself, folding her arms across her chest, but her sweatshirt wasn't nearly enough to keep the cold at bay. The sun was dipping low on the horizon, and soon it would disappear.

How had she gotten here?

How would she survive the night?

* * *

Beast replayed the video of a sleepwalking Sadi lowering the ramp, and exiting the Blackbird. The girl had dozed for some time in the co-pilot seat before rising and leaving the plane, her face a blank mask of sleep.

A somber silence had fallen over the X-Men.

"Doesn't make any sense," Logan commented. "I didn't catch her scent outside. We weren't gone that long, and we could all see the ship in the distance the whole time we were out. There weren't any other footprints but ours heading away from the ship."

Cyclops sighed. "Nobody panic. We'll find her. Can you pick up on her, Emma?"

"No," the White Queen replied, leaning against a bulkhead with her arms crossed over her chest. "She has a natural aversion to psychic contact. I can't reach her."

"May I suggest splitting the team up?" Beast asked. "It seems the only logical thing to do, considering our guest needs to receive medical attention as quickly as possible."

Scott nodded, straightening up and once again taking command. "Wolverine, Iceman, Storm—take all the survival gear you can carry and try to track her down. Beast, Emma, and I will fly to the nearest hospital and try to get back early in the morning to collect you. Understood? Storm, you're in charge."

The Weather Witch nodded her consent to the plan before turning to collect the equipment she would need. Logan and Bobby followed right behind her.

* * *

Sadi dug in the snow until she could no longer feel her hands. The trough she'd made wasn't deep enough to serve as a shelter from the wind, but the ice and snow was packed too hard to dig any deeper.

She laid down in the dip, practically resigning herself to death. If no one found her, the icy wasteland would serve as her grave.

"Sorry I didn't go out better, Pop," she whispered to herself through fast-chattering teeth. She'd pulled the hood of her sweatshirt as tight around her head as it would go, but the icy wind still bit into her backside. "Wish I could go out with a bang, like you did. Just hope I'll get to s—see you on the other side."

* * *

"There's something very wrong about all this," Logan growled, pausing every few steps to sniff at the air.

"Yeah. It's like invasion of the body snatchers," Bobby chimed in from above. He was surfing around, looking for prints in the snow.

Storm flew down to land beside Wolverine. "The sky will be clear tonight, and the wind will be calm in the area we search."

"You see any footprints from up there? Any sign of her?" Logan asked her, his voice low and gruff.

Storm shook her head morosely. "No. Any luck catching a scent?"

Wolverine shook his head. "It's like she stepped out of the plane and fell off the face of the Earth. Not even Gumbo was that slick. He was sneaky, but I could still pick up his trail if I tried. There's nothing out here but us, and whoever it was we found in the snow..."

Storm's intense eyes studied the shorter man. "You don't believe it's a coincidence, do you? That we found..."

"Nothing's ever a coincidence for the X-Men, 'Ro. I think that's one lesson we've all learned the hard way. Come on. We'd better catch up with Iceball before he starts to whine," Logan said, walking on without waiting for her.

Storm's sharp eyes watched the short, stocky man walk away, noting the drag in his step. She wondered if Logan knew how obviously he pined over his cubs. The young lost souls, like Jubilee, and like Sadi. He took them in as part of his pack, part of his family, and he felt solely responsible for any ill fate that befell them.


	14. Ghosts

"Time to wake up, Chere. You're gonna be late for school."

"Daddy?" Sadi whispered.

She heard her father's laugh. "Come on, Cherie. Gambit's not gonna wait forever," he said, and she felt him brush her hair off her face.

She just felt so comfortable. She didn't want to get up.

"Five more minutes," she groaned, curling up on her side.

"Gambit don't have five minutes, Petite. If you don' wake up now, he'll be gone," he said, and at the edge of her consciousness she felt his presence fade from her side.

"No, don't go," she whispered through cracked lips, forcing her eyes to slit open.

Sadi could see his blurry form walking away through her ice-encrusted eyelashes. "No, wait," she whispered, reaching out toward his back with blotchy white fingers. "Daddy, don't go," she cried out, louder this time, but still not loud enough.

She couldn't feel her hands and feet, but she crawled anyway. Sadi crawled after him, but she couldn't even slow the distance growing between them.

"Daddy!" she shouted, trying to get to her feet and stumbling, falling on her face in the snow. "Come back," she whispered, trying again to regain her footing, and this time succeeding for a number of wobbly paces before she sank to her knees, too weak to continue.

He paused at last, seeming to have heard her. When he turned she could see his bright smile, see him spread his arms as if to ask if she was coming.

She took heart in the sign, forcing her numb limbs to carry her at a stumbling walk, and then at something that resembled a jog.

"Pop!" she shouted in joy, just paces from flinging herself into his arms when the world fell out from under her.

She hadn't been able to see the drop-off. It had appeared out of nowhere on the otherwise flat plane of snow. It was as if someone had dug a hole in the ground, uncovering a steel doorway in the process. She couldn't have fallen more than seven feet, judging by the height of the snow above her. Mostly she'd tumbled down the steep embankment.

Sadi got to her feet with a great deal of effort, feeling every stinging bump and bruise her body had sustained during her sudden fall. She took a groggy look at the metal door in front of her. It was open—just a crack. She pushed it open further and stumbled on the raised step, falling inside when she couldn't force her hands to grip the door handle to steady herself. The lights came on automatically, and she pushed the door closed behind her with her foot, kicking it so it would latch.

Sadi groaned, her cheek coming to rest on the floor's smooth surface. She wanted to lie on the floor in the warm room and fall asleep, but she knew it wasn't the time for that. She had to get up and find a first-aid kit. Her hands were frostbitten, and she might lose her fingers if she didn't treat them quickly. Her teeth had long since ceased chattering, a sure sign of hypothermia.

The problem was—she couldn't get up. She'd used the last of her strength to stumble through the door.

A deep voice with a thick accent broke the silence of the room. "I see you have come a long way, little one," it said, and strong hands scooped her off the floor. "Tell me. Did you wander here on a yellow brick road, with a little dog at your side? Or did your house fall from the sky?"

"I'm no Dorothy," Sadi told him, too exhausted to do anything but let her body sag against his broad frame, her cheek coming to rest against the cool metal of his chest. "But if this is Oz, then you must be the Tin Man."

The voice chuckled in amusement before its owner's strong arms lifted her feet off the floor, and he carried her deeper into the complex.

* * *

Sadi didn't know how long she'd slept, but she felt a hell of a lot better when she woke up. Except for some things—like the places where she'd gotten frostbite.

Her caregiver had carefully wrapped her hands after treating them. He said they would heal, but it would be a while before she'd be able to use them properly. Shortly after that she'd fallen asleep on an exam table, surrounded by heat packs to treat her lowered body temperature. She hadn't even had the strength to introduce herself to her rescuer. He'd very thoughtfully covered her with a number of thermal blankets before leaving her to sleep in peace.

Sadi slid off the table feet-first, still exhausted. The only reason she hadn't rolled over and gone back to sleep was the desire to contact the X-Men and let them know she was all right.

"Hello?" she called into the dimly lit room. "Tin Man? You home?"

A short moment later, heavy footsteps from elsewhere in the complex began a slow march in her direction.

The large metal-man appeared, smiling at her. "Forgive me," he said. "I was exploring and I lost track of the time. It's good to see you up. You must be starving."

"You were exploring?" Sadi asked, confused. "Isn't this your home?"

The Tin Man shrugged. "This place? No. I woke from suspended animation when you tripped the silent alarm. There was no one else here, so the computer reanimated me. I believe I've been held captive here for some time, based on the dust on all the lab equipment."

"Oh," Sadi said. She blinked once, and then again, her brain still foggy after her ordeal. She shook her head, trying to clear her mind and focus on what must be done. "In that case, I guess we'd better find a way to contact my friends. There probably won't be any edible food left here."

The Tin Man smiled and nodded. "An excellent plan, little one. I believe the communication unit is back down this hallway. We will see if we can get it working."

Before he could turn to go, a thought struck Sadi. "Hey, wait. What's your real name?" she asked. "I can't keep calling you Tin Man. It seems disrespectful."

The man paused, turning to look over his shoulder. "My name is Piotr, but I'm better known as Colossus."

A chill went down Sadi's spine as she began to walk after Piotr.

Colossus. Yet another ghost back from the dead.


	15. Name Exchange

Piotr knew the call signs for the X-Jet. He spoke with Emma, and soon the X-Jet's computer triangulated their position according to their radio transmission signal.

When the transmission ended, Sadi felt his eyes on her while she wandered the room, looking over all the old lab equipment and wondering what it had been used for.

"I do not always look like this," Piotr said after a long moment of silence. "Usually I appear to be a perfectly normal human. I do not know why, but since I woke up I have been unable to change back from my living-metal form."

"I know, Piotr," Sadi said, examining two containment chambers on the far side of the room. Each chamber was big enough for a single adult to lie down in. One appeared to have been opened recently by the computer. The other had been violently blown open.

Sadi took a moment to stare at the twisted metal of the wrecked tube, and wondered who had been kept captive inside it, and how recently they'd dug themselves out of the door she'd stumbled across outside.

Colossus got up from his chair, and crossed his arms over his chest. "I don't mean to sound rude, but I have been wondering at your lack of fear. Most humans I meet are frightened by my appearance."

"Don't get me wrong," Sadi replied nonchalantly. "I'm scared out of my wits. My body's just too tired to care."

He stood in silence for a long moment. Then said, "How did you get all the way out here without a coat, little girl?"

Sadi sighed, turning to look at him. She felt exhausted down to her very soul, and she couldn't get her father's image out of her mind. "Your name is Piotr Rasputin. You joined the X-Men in your teenaged years, and there you worked with my father, Remy Lebeau."

"Remy Lebeau?" Colossus asked, clearly confused.

Sadi's brow furrowed. "Think trench coat, and red-on-black eyes."

Piotr's eyes widened. "You mean Gambit? The card thrower with no name?"

Sadi nodded. "Yeah, the card thrower."

"But, I did not realize he was so much older than the rest of us. You must be twenty at least..."

She shook her head. "No, Piotr, he wasn't that much older than you. I knew you too. You died when I was very young, but I do remember you. You sacrificed yourself so the Legacy virus wouldn't wipe out mutant-kind. I have a feeling the rest of the X-Men will be surprised to see you. Emma probably didn't realize it was you when you spoke with her just now, so they'll be doubly surprised when they find us both here."

Colossus sat back down in his chair, his jaw coming to rest on his fist. He seemed to be in shock, so Sadi gave him his peace, wandering around to look at more of the facility.

* * *

Sadi didn't manage to open the door to the outside before Wolverine's claws sliced through it, and the stocky mutant kicked it open. She'd jumped back to a safe distance, and when Logan glowered at her, she raised one bandaged hand to wave at him.

He took a step toward her, then another, standing over her and glaring down.

"I see you found the place all right," she said lamely. "I was planning on cleaning up before you came, but I think we can agree this place needs more help than a dust-rag can provide."

Logan growled deep in his throat. "Don't ever disappear like that again. We get a call from someone claiming to be an X-Man fifty miles from where we landed yesterday, and the second we get off the plane outside I caught your scent in the air. How did you do it? How'd you walk here without a coat, or any other gear?"

"I don't know," she said, dropping her head. "I don't know, but it happened just like in my dreams. I heard Jean's voice, and my father's voice, and somehow I landed here. I saw him, Logan. I saw my dad. He saved me."

Wolverine snorted. "Hallucination, kid. It happens when you get cold and dehydrated. Have Beast check your hands, then go get on the ship."

Logan stalked off, but Hank quickly took his place standing in front of her. Beast smiled kindly as he examined her wrappings. "These seem all right. You must not have been out in the cold for too terribly long, or it would've been far worse. You'll have to tell me all about what happened on the flight home."

Sadi nodded. "I will, Beast."

"Holy shit! It's Pete!" Bobby yelped from further in the complex.

Sadi shrugged at Hank's questioning look. "Did I forget to mention I found Colossus?"


	16. Sneaking in the Dark

It struck her as odd to have Beast re-wrap her hands in the kitchen instead of taking her down to his lab in the sub-basement. He made a lame excuse about not wanting to make her walk all the way down there when she was so tired. Sadi let it slide without question. Her fingers hurt, and the skin had developed a few blisters in areas where the frost bite was the worst.

Beast gave her some Advil for the pain, and sent her to bed to get some rest, even though it was still early evening.

* * *

Sadi woke in the middle of the night when the Advil wore off. At first she tried to roll over and fall back asleep, but the pain kept sleep at bay. 

She rose from her bed and slipped out of her room, wandering downstairs in the dark. She blinked rapidly against the bright light someone had left on in the hallway leading to the kitchen.

Footsteps she didn't recognize put her on guard just before she entered the kitchen. She could hear them coming toward the door she'd just been about to open, and instinctively Sadi softly padded out of the way and around a corner, planning to enter the kitchen from the rear. Whether the footsteps belonged to a friend or an intruder, she didn't feel like running into anyone at the moment.

The light snapped off in the kitchen just before she entered, and she heard the other door creaking on its hinges, as if someone had just walked through it. Sadi waited for her eyes to adjust, than slipped over to the cupboard containing various innocuous drugs, such as Advil and vitamins.

She was just about to reach for the pill bottle she wanted when someone grabbed her from behind, wrapping a large hand over her mouth, and an arm around her waist, lifting her off the floor.

Sadi tried to scream, but she couldn't breathe around the hand on her face. Her arms were pinned tight to her sides, so she couldn't get an elbow in, and her feeble shoe-less kicks did nothing to her attacker.

"Anyone ever tell you it ain't polite t' sneak around in other people's houses, Chere?" a deep, smooth voice asked her.

Sadi's eyes went wide. A Cajun. Probably an enemy of her father's, or perhaps even her grandfather's. Who was he? An assassin? A thief?

She fought harder, throwing back her head in an attempt to head-butt him in the face. Whoever he was, he knew how to restrain someone without letting them hurt him. She could only keep arching her body, wiggling and hoping she'd manage to put him off balance, give her a chance to escape and cry out.

Finally, she managed to slip an arm free, losing most of the bandages on that hand in the process. She put an elbow into his diaphragm, slamming it in as hard and fast as she could until he finally let her go. She crashed into the counter in front of her, but her training overrode her panic, and instead of crumpling, she continued to react, reaching out to find a weapon.

Her damaged hands found the knife block on the counter, and she pulled one out with the hand that had lost its bandages. It hurt like hell to force her fingers to bend around the handle, but she needed a weapon, or she'd be killed.

Sadi pivoted when she felt his grip tighten on her shirt, slashing him across the chest. She heard an 'oof' come out of him when she cut him, and his form stumbled back a few steps before straightening up.

"Back off!" she yelled, brandishing the knife blade-up in her palm, just like Jean-Luc had taught her.

He shifted where he stood, and a moment later Sadi saw something start to glow in the dark.

At first she thought he'd lit a match, but then she realized the light came from the object in his hand. The bottle of Advil she'd been after. It glowed ominously before he threw it at her feet.

Sadi dropped the knife and dove for cover behind the kitchen's island counter. The explosion wasn't huge, but it concussed her ears enough to leave her mostly-deaf. Scared half to death, she scrambled to her feet and made a mad dash for the door. He anticipated the move, and she crashed right into him, flailing when he grabbed her by the front of her shirt.

At first she struggled, but she stilled when he slapped her across the face, knocking her senses right out of her head. "Who are you?" he demanded, shaking her roughly.

The glow of the fire leftover from the explosion lit his face, and Sad saw him clearly for the first time. Her eyes went wide and she stopped fighting.

"No," she whispered, unable to take her eyes off him. She took him in—everything from his flyaway red-brown hair, to his red-on-black eyes.

No thoughts entered her mind at all, until one idea finally came to her, and she latched onto it for dear life.

"Mystique," she growled, her eyes narrowing.

The man snorted. "Don't know what you're talkin' about, Chere."

"Mystique!" she shouted in a fit of rage, slugging him as hard as she could in the face.

She didn't stop when he let her go. She took out his knee with a side kick, followed immediately by an elbow to his temple.

Sadi didn't even realize she was crying until she stood over him, struggling to breathe properly. "You've gone too far this time!" she choked. "Why him, you heartless bitch? What do you want from the X-Men this time?"

His hand shot out and grabbed her ankle, pulling it out from under her. The next thing Sadi knew, she was on her back with the wind knocked out of her, her father's face floating above her. A piece of debris he held between two fingers began to glow, while his other hand wrapped around her throat to pin her down.

He purposely spat blood on the front of her white t-shirt. "Gambit should blow you out of your misery, fille. You crazy."

"Get off of her, Gambit," Storm ordered from the kitchen doorway. "You're hurting her."

He glanced up. "Don't tell me you know this little rat, Stormy. Caught her sneaking around."

"Like a thief, perhaps?" Cyclops asked, his tone business-as-usual as he walked over and took the man by the arm, pulling him off her.

Sadi cautiously scooted away from them once she was free, getting to her feet only when she was well out of reach of the man resembling her father.

Storm placed a comforting arm around her shoulders, starling her. "This is Sadi, Remy," the Weather Witch said, giving Sadi's shoulders a squeeze. "She's a guest at the mansion. She's working on completing her high school diploma."

"That can't be Remy Lebeau," Sadi said, an unyielding stiffness in her tone. "That's not him. Why're you acting like it's him?"

"Because Beast ran all the tests already, Sadi," Cyclops responded. "As unlikely as it seems, it's him."

Gambit shot a nasty glare at Sadi. "How you know my name, Chere? Don't remember giving it to you, or anyone else here."

Sadi dropped her head. "Don't worry. My last name's Lebeau. Everyone who hates you hates me too," she said, jerking away from Storm and stalking out of the room to find some solitude. 


	17. The Truth

"It's my birthday next week," she said when Logan sat down beside her on the roof. She'd been sitting there for hours, staring off at nothing. Dawn was just starting to light the eastern sky, and she felt exhausted. Her hands throbbed, and her face was a mess of blood, soot, and dried tears. "I've been thinking about having a party, but I'm afraid no one would come," she said, her voice strained and dull.

Wolverine grunted, reaching over to ruffle up her hair. His hand came away dirty, but he didn't seem to mind. "Ah, people would come. Maybe not very many, but some would. Johnny Storm still asks about you on occasion. Bobby Drake's always up for a beer on someone else's tab."

Sadi smiled, shaking her head. "I honestly don't know if I'll last another week in this mad house. Things have just gotten too strange for me."

Logan shrugged. "That's understandable. Ain't every day you walk downstairs and practically get mugged by a teenaged version of your dead father."

Sadi shot him a horrified look. "What do you mean 'teenaged'? How old is he? What is he?"

Wolverine shrugged again. "'Teenaged' might be an exaggeration, but he is a young Remy Lebeau. Probably in his early twenties. Beast can't tell for sure, but he thinks he might be the original Remy. Just like the Colossus you found could be the original Pete. We looked around that lab in Siberia and it had Sinister's fingerprints all over it. The gene manipulation equipment, the software, and the test tubes. The running theory is that shortly after Gambit joined the X-Men, he went in search of Sinister—perhaps in an effort to keep us from finding out about his part in organizing the Marauders. Beast thinks Sinister kept Gambit as a rat to experiment on, making a clone to keep us off the trail. We're not sure how he got his claws into Pete, but I'm sure eventually they'll figure it out."

"Early twenties," Sadi repeated, still in shock at the knowledge. "Jesus, he's practically my age."

Logan reached over and snapped his fingers in front of her face. "Come on, kid. Hold it together. Don't need you getting spooky on me. Have enough of that around here without you joining in."

Sadi sighed, one half-bandaged hand pushing her dirty hair from her eyes. A soft breeze came up, causing her to shiver while she stared off at the red sunrise, her eyes slowly un-focusing as she took in the beauty of the coming morning. "You know, sometimes I wish I could just wake up one morning and not remember any of this bullshit. I wish I could really start over, and not just pretend to, like I did in New Orleans. I think the kids are right. This place is haunted—and it's haunted because it just sucks the fucking life out of people, whether they're mutants or not."

She felt him draw away—mentally, not physically. Suddenly his presence turned from comforting to cold, without a single word passing between them.

"You shouldn't ask for that," he said, the words as sharp as his claws. "You have no idea what it's like to not know who you are, or where you came from..."

Sadi's eyes flashed with anger when she turned them on him. "You seriously think I couldn't do without the twenty years I've lived? Tell me what happened just before my father died, Logan. Tell me where we were when the two of you found me, and how I got there. Tell me what happened to me that day. Tell me it was my fault he died."

He didn't turn to look at her. "You know I can't. The Professor's gone, Jean's gone. If you lost the barriers in your memory..."

"I'd freak out?" she asked. "I'd rather not know? I believe you—I truly do. I don't want to know what happened to me. I just don't see the difference between the physical suffering I endured then, versus the suffering I've endured since then."

He reached out as if to tilt her chin toward him, but his hand paused in its journey, and then fell back to his side. "Just trust me," he said, his voice still gruff in spite of its softness. "There are worse things than remembering the horrors of your past."

Sadi pulled her knees up against her chest, letting her hair dangle in her face to hide her eyes. "I guess," she admitted grudgingly, but she didn't believe the words and they both knew it.

Logan got to his feet silently. "Go talk to him, kid. He's still groggy from you hittin' 'em in the face. Might be the best time to get something out of him. Doubt any of the rest of us will get him to say a word. He hasn't exactly been forthcoming so far."

"Why?" Sadi asked morosely. "Why would he talk to me?"

"Don't know if he will—but I do know he won't talk to the rest of us for at least another five years. That's how long it took him to start trusting us the first time around."

* * *

Sadi approached him cautiously, but allowed her steps to alert him to her presence. He half turned when she got within twenty feet, giving her a long look, his cigarette dangling from one hand.

"You look awful beat up, Chere," he commented, turning back to take a drag on his cigarette. "Wonder how that coulda happened."

Sadi kept her face perfectly blank, not quite knowing how to interpret his words. "You don't look so good yourself," she replied, taking a seat beside him.

The young Cajun smirked, blowing out a stream of smoke. "Still look betta than you, Petite. Gambit whipped your ass good."

Sadi held up her wrapped hands for him to see. "Wait until these heal, then we'll have a rematch."

"Sure we will—but no knives this time. Gambit don' like gettin' cut up."

"Deal," Sadi relented. "Besides, you'd probably use it to blow me up."

Remy smirked. "Gambit won't cheat if you don't. What's your mutation anyway? Temporary insanity?"

Sadi looked off in the distance, feeling her insides twist up in knots. She hated this. She hated bantering with him the same way she had with her father. They weren't the same man—this Remy was less mature in his thinking process—but he shared an undeniable likeness with the Remy she remembered.

"I don't have a mutation," she said at last. "I was born human, I've lived human, and someday I'll die human."

Gambit shifted his eyes away from her, grinding out his smoke on the wooden picnic table they sat on.

"So let's see if Gambit's got this straight. Your name is Sadi Lebeau. You walk like a thief, knife-fight like a thief, but you don' talk like a thief? You don't got no mutation, but you're livin' at the Xavier mansion with the X-Men?"

"You had a clone," Sadi said softly. "He was my father. He was a wild partier, just like you probably are, and eventually someone left a basket on his doorstep with me in it. He couldn't ever remember who my mother was, but he brought me here for a DNA test and it confirmed I was his daughter. He sacrificed himself four years ago to kill Sinister.

"So I guess that sort of makes you my uncle, in a way. Not that it matters. I'm pretty good at taking care of myself, so I don't want you to think I expect anything from you."

Gambit chuckled, but it wasn't a sound Sadi had ever heard from her father during his life. It was mean, almost evil.

"What?" she asked, unable to see what he found amusing about the situation.

He shook his head, swearing almost unintelligibly in mangled French. Then he got up, backing away a number of steps while facing her. He took a long, hard look at her.

"Gambit sees the resemblance now. Must've missed it 'cause your face was all smashed up, Chere. It's uncanny."

Sadi's brow furrowed. "Most people don't think I look that much like you."

He shook his head. "Non, not like Gambit. Like your mother," he said, turning to walk away.

Sadi jumped up, jogging after him. "What do you mean like my mother?" she asked. "Do you remember her? Did you meet her before Sinister caught you?"

"Met 'er. Fucked 'er. Dumped 'er. Didn't believe it when she came knockin' on my door, sayin' she was pregnant. Ain't like it matters now," he said, never breaking stride.

Sadi caught him by the arm, spinning him toward her. "What do you mean it doesn't matter? If what you're saying is true, that means..." Suddenly it hit her what exactly it meant, and she clamped her hands over her mouth, staring at him in horror. "Oh my God," she whispered.

He turned to face her fully, glaring down at her. "Let me tell you somethin', Petite," he said coldly. "Gambit didn't want a daughter then, and he sure as hell don't want one now. So stay the fuck outta my way."

Remy turned to leave her there, not once glancing back.

Sadi fell to her knees with the weight of his words. She couldn't even process the implications of what he'd said. It hurt too bad to think she'd believed a lie all her life.

She'd thought she'd known her father—but the truth was she'd never met him before that day.


	18. Love

After several hours of girl-talk, no small amount of ice cream, and a movie on the town, Rogue finally talked her into staying the two weeks until she took her GED test.

Sadi resigned herself to her dorm room when she didn't have to teach, using the excuse that she needed to study. She didn't, but she figured studying was the only thing that would keep nosey X-Men from bothering her. Not that she needed to worry. She hardly saw any of them in the days following her encounter with Rogue.

On the rare occasions she did actually leave her fortress of solitude, she noticed Gambit had begun training with some of the older students at the school in preparation for eventually rejoining the X-Men.

He was a flirt by nature, just like her father had been. It seemed like he had a different good-looking seventeen or eighteen year old girl on his arm every time Sadi saw him. None of them seemed to care he had a twenty-year-old daughter.

The rest of the X-Men were hardly ever around. They were all caught up in the changing tides of the new Superhero Registration Act.

Wolverine had left to go after some criminal named Nitro who'd blown up a bunch of kids in Connecticut. He'd gotten into a huge fight with Emma Frost and Cyclops right before he'd left. Sadi suspected some of Logan's agitation had come from Piotr's reappearance, and Wolverine had needed to get some space and find himself the only way he knew how—by killing someone. Everyone knew Piotr and Kitty had been childhood sweethearts. Apparently Logan knew it too, and it probably bothered him far more than he could bear to admit.

Beast, Scott, and Emma came and went—working the political side of the registration act, and the superhero civil war that had ensued. Officially, Xavier's school was neutral territory, and the school's Headmaster and Headmistress intended to keep it that way.

Storm had returned to Africa to be with her fiancé, the Black Panther, leaving Kitty as the remaining administrator for the school on a daily basis. Sadi had entirely taken over the self-defense classes for all the students, and while she didn't particularly enjoy it, she liked the fact that it left her completely exhausted at the end of the day.

The week passed at an agonizing crawl, and by Friday night Sadi decided she couldn't stand to spend another minute studying. All the kids had gone out to movies and parties. The X-Men had left for Washington DC to appear at a pro-mutant rally. The house was nearly empty, and at seven in the evening a soft knock sounded on her door.

Sadi rose from her chair at her desk, stretching her arms toward the ceiling while walking toward the door. She opened it, surprised to find Piotr standing there.

"Piotr," she said, a little dumbfounded. She'd almost forgotten about him, seeing as she'd hardly seen him since their return from Siberia.

The large Russian boy smiled shyly. He still hadn't managed to return to his human form, so his features were still made of steel. "I was wondering if you would like to join me in watching a movie downstairs. The two of us could perhaps talk?"

Sadi smiled back at him. "Yeah, that sounds like fun. Let me turn off my computer and I'll meet you down there in a minute."

Colossus smiled, nodding to her and then turning to walk downstairs.

* * *

They both sat on the couch, watching the movie for half-an-hour or so in near-darkness. Sadi didn't pay much attention to what they watched. She was too distracted with thoughts of where she'd go once she received her GED. Her hands were nearly healed, and she'd spoken to Jean-Luc on the phone. Her grandfather wanted her to return to New Orleans, but Sadi had no idea what she wanted to do. Perhaps she would find a place to settle down, go to school for a while.

"The whole world has changed since this movie was made," Piotr commented.

Sadi jerked back to the present, realizing a commercial had come on, and her companion stared at the screen blankly.

"Yeah," she agreed, realizing for the first time just how much of a shock it must've been for Colossus to return to the mansion after spending twenty years in a stasis tube. "Lots of things have changed. I mean, Jesus, have you read about all this registration stuff in the news? Things are getting pretty heavy. Spiderman revealed his true identity the other day. Captain America's gone rogue. It's just a matter of time before Cap and Iron Man start to duke it out over the constitutionality of this thing."

Piotr turned his head to look at her. "I have found it is not the changes that bother me so much. The Registration Act is a terrible thing for America, but in the country and time where I was born, it would not have been such a strange occurrence. It is the things that have remained the same, yet are not how I remember them that bother me most. The social aspects are different. The people are different. All whom I once knew have changed, and now they expect me to do the same. I fear I am not adjusting as quickly as they would like," he said, his steel face taking on a forlorn expression.

Sadi reached over to pat him on the shoulder. "Don't worry about it, Pete. You're not the only one. I'm sure it's hard for them to see you back. I know it's hard for me to deal with Gambit landing back in my life."

Piotr nodded. "Kitty won't even speak to me. She's grown older, and she's become a married woman. I think she would have preferred it if I had not returned. I wish her much happiness, but I fear I will always regret losing the girl she once was."

Sadi shrugged. "I don't know. I guess the thing you have to realize is Kitty and Logan were pretty much meant to be together. Their powers make them virtually invincible—so it's not like they have to worry about losing each other. If anything, I'd be jealous of that. The rest of us have to go through life just waiting for death to claim us, and anyone we're stupid enough to love."

It shocked her a little to feel one of Piotr's metal fingers curl under her chin to lift her face so he could look at her. "I hope you do not truly believe that, Sadi," he said, sounding very grave. "I hope you do not believe love is something so fragile that death alone might snuff it out."

Sadi shook her head. "No. I know love is strong. It's so strong, I've had a hard time surviving it these past four years."


End file.
